(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a room arrangement for partitioning adjacent living areas and, more particularly, to a room arrangement having a bi-directional door that is selectively positionable to partition adjacent rooms.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The layout and design of room arrangements is always concerned with utilizing the limited amount of square footage that is allocated for the rooms. This is especially important in hotels, apartments, and other commercial facilities in which rooms are sized as small as possible while, at the same time, still trying to maintaining the comfort and feel of a larger, more spacious layout.
An effective room arrangement maximizes available square footage and provides a useable, comfortable room for the user. Within the room arrangement, privacy areas are needed for changing clothes, talking on the telephone, taking a shower, etc. Segregating areas for these activities requires interior walls and doorways which are often inefficient uses of space since the interior doorframes and doors occupy portions of the available square footage. Additionally, doorframes and doors are expensive and require skilled labor to install.
Previous attempts to provide additional privacy areas have had several drawbacks. For example, many of the prior art designs are cumbersome and not practical for the users, such as telescoping and inter-meshing doors, slidable walls, corresponding doors, and others. These devices are often only seen in more expensive private homes and are cost prohibitive for hotels and apartments. Additionally, they require extra maintenance, which commercial operations must avoid to remain profitable, to ensure the devices continue to operate effectively.
Thus, there remains a need for a new and improved room arrangement which utilizes an unique bi-directional door to partition adjacent areas of the room arrangement while, at the same time, does not reduce usable space or add additional construction or maintenance costs when compared to conventional door and frame construction.